Advances in integrated circuit (IC) design and the manufacturing techniques used to create ICs have contributed to reducing the size of design features in the ICs. Since the number of features in a pattern directly corresponds to the size of a data file, an increase in the number of features in a pattern also increases the size and complexity of the data file.
Patterns in the data file are typically imaged onto the surface of a photomask or a reticle by a lithography tool that compiles the patterns contained in the data file and prints the compiled patterns onto the photomask. The size of the data file does not affect the printing speed of the lithography tool but a larger data file can increase the amount of time needed for compilation. For example, if the volume of patterns in the data file increases above the processing limit of the lithography tool, the processing resources of the lithography tool cannot keep up with the printing system and the tool must pause during printing to wait for more data to be processed. A large data file, therefore, can decrease the throughput of the lithography tool and increase the cost of manufacturing a photomask.